Chapter 9: Manifest Destiny

Sec. 1: The Western Pioneers Obj: Describe the nation’s westward expansion.

I. Americans Head West  By the time of the Civil War, more Americans lived west of the Appalachians than lived in the states along the Atlantic Coast.  John Louis O’Sullivan (1845) – magazine editor who wrote, “it was the manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence.”  manifest destiny = idea that God had given the continent to Americans and wanted them to settle western lands.

A. Farming the New Lands  Squatters = pioneers who settled on lands they did not own.  The federal government intended to survey the western lands and sell large parcels to real estate companies, but the squatters wanted to buy the land directly from the government.  Preemption Act of 1830 = law which protected squatters by guaranteeing them the right to claim the land before it was surveyed and the right to buy up to 160 acres at a minimum price of $1.25 an acre.

B. Plows and Reapers  Jethro Wood – patented an iron plow in 1819.  John Deere – engineered a plow with steel blades that cut deeply into the soil.  Cyrus McCormick – created the mechanical reaper (to cut grain).  These inventions/innovations cut the labor/time of agriculture in half allowing farmers to produce far more with much less effort.

II. Settling the Pacific Coast

A. Dividing Oregon  Both the U.S. and Great Britain competed for the Oregon Territory, and agreed to jointly claim the land in 1818.  In the 1830s, American missionaries began arriving in Oregon in an effort to convert the Native Americans to Christianity.  These settlers soon began to spread the word and increase interest among other potential settlers in the western lands.

B. Populating California  1821 – Mexico won its independence from Spain and controlled a vast territory, which included California.  1839 – Juan Bautista Alvarado, governor of California, granted 50,000 acres in the Sacramento Valley to a German immigrant named, John Sutter.  Sutter built a cattle ranch and trading post (Sutter’s Fort) and was often the first stopping point for Americans travelling to California.

C. The Trails West  Trailblazing mountain men like, Kit Carson and Jim Bridger, made a living in the western frontier by trapping and trading.  These men gained a thorough knowledge of the territory and the local Native Americans.  These men had also carved out several east-to-west passages that would be vital to the settlement of the West – Oregon Trail, California Trail, and the Santa Fe Trail.

D. Wagon Train Life  Potential new settlers would often meet en masse at frontier towns on the plains, exchange travel information and supplies, and hire mountain men to guide them into the west.  Overlanders = name given to these settlers who were using the heavily- travelled trails to find their own way into the West using guidebooks written by earlier settlers instead of mountain men guides.  Donner Party – well known story of 87 overlanders led by the Donner Brothers who were trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada. 41 members of the party died, while those who survived resorted to cannibalism to help stave off starvation.  The typical western journey took 5 – 6 months. Men oversaw the journey and helped provide food & protection for the travelers. Women tended to the children, cooked, cleaned clothes, etc.

E. Native Americans  Though attacks by local Native Americans was a fear of most settlers, as many Native Americans were killed by the settlers as settlers killed by the Native Americans.  Native American tribes more typically helped the travelers by trading supplies with them and providing vital information about the expectations of their journey ahead.  However, over time Native American tribes in the Great Plains (Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho) began to fear the increasing immigration would threaten their livelihoods, particularly disrupting the massive herds of buffalo that these Indians depended upon for survival.  Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) – treaty between the U.S. and Plains Indians that the Natives’ lands and boundaries would be respected and belong to them forever.

III. The Mormon Migration  The Mormons moved to the West for religious freedom.  1844 – After the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, was murdered, the Mormon following was headed by Brigham Young.  Brigham Young would lead the Mormons west across the Rocky Mountains to the Utah Territory. Their travelled path would become known as the Mormon Trail.  Brigham Young would declare the territory around the Great Salt Lake as the new homeland for the Mormon settlers.